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Emma Sidi: ‘You can only fully write a character if you can love them’

August 6, 2018TheGuardian

The character comic switches roles like a regenerating Time Lord in her new Edinburgh show, Faces of Grace – from a wannable Love Island contestant to a cat-loving loner

It became clear to Emma Sidi this year that her interpretive dance about NHS waiting times would have to go. The 27-year-old comic, who has been seen in W1A and the BBC3 vlogging satire Pls Like, performed the sketch in January as part of a work-in-progress show in a studio space in London; Michael McIntyre was hogging the larger room next door.

Many comedians destined for Edinburgh each August put in a solid 10 or 11 months of workshopping beforehand. Sidi knows the drill, having taken two acclaimed sets to the fringe. Character Breakdown, in 2015, saw her play six different roles, including a feminism professor whose lecture, delivered entirely in Spanish, was prone to stray from the topic. At one point, she relates the tale of being interrupted by Dobby the House Elf during some “solo masturbación.” Sidi’s 2016 show, Telenovela, ended with the audience building giant foil wings for her to fly away.

I asked my mum to be in my YouTube videos. Now she’s a Bollywood star

August 4, 2018TheGuardian

When the comedian Mawaan Rizwan put his mother Shahnaz into his videos, they were an instant hit. And then Bollywood came calling…

In 2012, the comedian Mawaan Rizwan was making videos for YouTube and gaining modest success. One day, he found himself in need of a stooge for his latest sketch, so he roped in his mum, Shahnaz.

The resulting video, My Mum Hates Me, in which the two of them banter back and forth about all the ways in which they annoy each other, took off in a way he’d never experienced. “That got 115,078 views,” he says. “So we did loads more sketches. In one of them, she dressed up as a goth, in another she was a midwife.”

She had always been very strict and focused on our schoolwork, but when she acted in my videos, I saw her in a new light

Adam Hess: ‘I once dreamed I was a germ in Richard Gere’s bloodstream’

August 3, 2018TheGuardian

The standup comedian and bitcoin speculator on the things that make him laugh the most

Modern Toss on Edinburgh fringe

Rob Brydon’s Making Divorce Work (as Keith Barret). I used to read it in the break room when I worked in Boots because nobody talked to me, and then I realised that people didn’t want to talk to me because they thought I was a 19-year-old divorcee.

‘She’s got no filter’: the standup who let a six-year-old write his comedy show

August 3, 2018TheGuardian

Giving his partner’s daughter free rein during the creative process has resulted in Owen Roberts’ most surreal show to date – and the sort of laughs other comics at Edinburgh dream of

In a sweaty Portakabin in Edinburgh, a standup makes his entrance to Let It Go from Frozen. He is dressed as a chicken, complete with feather boa and yellow tights, and before long is clucking among the audience, dancing and laying eggs. This, explains standup Owen Roberts, is what happens when you let a six-year-old girl create your fringe comedy show.

The idea came to Roberts, who usually performs with the sketch trio Beasts, when he was trying to write his first solo material. After spending the day in front of a blank computer screen, he went to pick up his partner’s garrulous daughter, Isabella, from school. Isabella, he realised, was full of imagination and energy. Could she rescue him in this moment of desperation? After all, he helps her with her homework.

Reginald D Hunter: ‘I’ve saved lives on many occasions’

August 2, 2018TheGuardian

The comedian, 49, on selflessness, why he never panics in a crisis and what he likes about the UK

I go thorough periods of eating healthily. Right now I seem to be interested in these Vietnam noodle soups. Oh man. My friend says, “Not as bad as a three, not as good as a five but definitely a pho”. I used to think that if this comedy thing didn’t work out I’d go to chef school. I used to put garlic powder on my eggs – I used to be very particular about that kind of thing.

I used to bring back a lot of graham crackers from the States when I visited and I still make a tuna fish salad from Georgia that requires a very sweet relish that’s hard to find in the UK. Chicken coconut curry was my signature dish when I was trying to impress someone.

I love talking and I love ideas, but I hate chit-chat

Sometimes you say things that you know might be helpful and you do it in the guise of jokes

Booze, bankruptcy, brain haemorrhage: the comics turning tragedy into laughs

August 1, 2018TheGuardian

A former alcoholic, a cancer survivor and a man who lost all his money in a Bitcoin crash are among the comics coming back from the brink at the Edinburgh fringe

‘I didn’t start drinking until I was 18,” says Matt Rees. “That’s quite a rarity for someone in the UK. But straight away, I recognised that I liked it – and I knew that one day I’d have to stop.”

Rees, who was born in Maesteg, south Wales, is making his debut at this year’s Edinburgh fringe with Happy Hour, a look back at his battle with alcohol. He started performing in 2010 and quickly scooped up some new act awards. Then, two years ago, his comedy career stalled as he experienced problems with addiction.

‘It’s normal to go on stage after a few pints, and it’s fine to be hungover the next day. Someone with a normal job would’ve been fired’

Strewth! Antipodean women deliver summer of laughter to Britain

July 29, 2018TheGuardian

Comics from Australia and New Zealand will take centre stage, from Netflix to the Edinburgh fringeAustralian comedians have traditionally provided British audiences with a slice of unabashed, earthy humour, dating back to the early heyday of Dame Edna …

Sara Pascoe: ‘My greatest fear? Animals choking on plastic I’ve thrown away’

July 28, 2018TheGuardian

The comedian on intimacy, teenage shoplifting and why she hates music

Pascoe, 37, appeared in the BBC series Twenty Twelve and WIA. In 2016, she wrote Animal: The Autobiography Of A Female Body and toured her Animal show. She is now writing her second book, Sex Power Money. From 16 September, she will tour the UK with her hit show LadsLadsLads, inspired by her breakup with fellow comedian John Robins.

What is your earliest memory?
Being in a pram and having a tantrum. I was being pushed and the trees above me were all blurry because of the tears in my eyes.

Mawaan Rizwan: ‘Beyoncé dancing to Thomas the Tank Engine is my religion’

July 27, 2018TheGuardian

The actor, writer and standup on the things that make him laugh the mostFive years ago Josie Long did an impression of Ed Miliband, as if he was a boisterous and cocky anarchist. She broke two massive plant pots and spat all over the stage. I was cryin…

Sean Patton review – sex with Jesus and a burger as big as Texas

July 23, 2018TheGuardian

Soho theatre, London
His shtick is tubby underdog with the heart of a poet – but the New Orleans comic was a bit too hit and miss

Sean Patton is a New Orleans native who made waves at last year’s Edinburgh fringe with a fine hour of storytelling comedy. I missed his raconteurship in this followup, which strings together flights of romantic fantasy and jokes about his OCD but stints on the big-hitting anecdotes that made his earlier set memorable.

We’re left with a slightly disjointed hour that feels like several club sets imperfectly combined, but which Patton holds together with a strong personality and a few choice gags. The shtick is tubby underdog on the outside, wicked poetic dreamer on the inside. He starts with a riff on having his heart stolen by a former love, a metaphor extended beyond all good sense until that disembodied heart is leading a bleak life of its own, selling heart sex and having heart miscarriages.

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